


Patiens Ardor

by sakurain (meteorain)



Series: CGHP AU [1]
Category: Code Geass
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-18 17:49:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19339525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meteorain/pseuds/sakurain
Summary: In which Suzaku gradually falls in love with his best friend, but Lelouch takes a really, really long time to realize it. (Harry Potter AU)





	Patiens Ardor

**Author's Note:**

> YEAR 1: Suzaku and Lelouch stare at each other, play chess, and maybe become friends. (Harry Potter AU)

Suzaku leaves his Charms class, dejected, because he really is trying hard and nothing seems to be coming from it. He’s lost in his moping as he leaves the classroom, so he almost misses the small tug on the back of his robes. Suzaku turns around in surprise. He sees Lelouch leaning near the classroom’s doorway, watching him.

“Oh, hi Lelouch,” Suzaku greets, unsure why Lelouch is still here after class.

“Kururugi,” Lelouch says in return, in that proper tone of his, like he’s reading out of one his huge textbooks.

“You know, my name’s Suzaku.”

“I saw you were having trouble in class,” Lelouch says as he steps away from the wall and towards Suzaku, completely ignoring the other boy’s words.

Suzaku shrugs. He feels a little self-conscious that Lelouch noticed how badly he’s doing. It almost makes him prefer it when they were still fighting. At least the Lelouch back then wouldn’t have spared Suzaku’s awful performance any attention, much less pointed it out.

“I’m working on it,” Suzaku mutters wearily.

Lelouch is quiet for a long moment. He opens his mouth, then closes it just as fast. He seems to consider what he wants to say very carefully, before he finally says, “I could help you.”

Suzaku blinks and stares at Lelouch. He can only think to blurt out, “Really?”

Lelouch lets out a little huff of annoyance at that. Suzaku is surprised Lelouch doesn’t roll his eyes before he says, “Yes, really, why else would I be offering? We could work on your casting, as well as some of your more, ah... significant problems.”

“My what?” Suzaku repeats, tilting his head and frowning, because what does that even mean?

Lelouch only nods with a little hum of agreement and before he starts walking down the hall. The implication that Suzaku follow him is pretty clear, even if Lelouch doesn’t say it outright, so Suzaku does just that.

 

===

 

It’s nearly dinner time. Lelouch has been pacing up and down the hallway for _forever_ , and Suzaku is beginning to think that this isn’t such a great idea. He really does want to be friends with Lelouch—real friends!—but this is starting to test his determination.

“What are we waiting for?” Suzaku asks, trying his best to not sound impatient. Suzaku's long since given up following Lelouch up and down the hallway, choosing instead to lean against the castle wall in boredom. Lelouch doesn’t reply and Suzaku sighs for probably the hundredth time, he thinks. He starts lazily sliding down the wall bit by bit, for lack of anything else to do.

Lelouch continues his march along the hallway, his face very serious. Suzaku is about to say that maybe he should leave if he’s going to be ignored when Lelouch finally stops. It happens so abruptly that Suzaku nearly falls over in surprise.

“That is what we’re waiting for,” Lelouch says, his expression very pleased as he points towards the middle of the wall. Suzaku follows Lelouch’s aim to look, and wait when—

“When did that get there?” Suzaku finishes out loud. The fact that Lelouch ignores him again doesn’t bother him as much this time around. He’s too busy being alarmed when Lelouch starts walking to this strange, suddenly existent door like he’s planning on going inside.

Suzaku feels very sick, very fast. He ends up voicing his disapproval in an attempt to stop Lelouch in the most ineffective way possible. “What are you _doing_?” 

“Would you lower your voice?” Lelouch whispers urgently, not looking back at Suzaku. Suzaku starts to think that this is an especially bad idea, because Lelouch is opening the door and stepping into this room that has who knows what inside of it and Suzaku—Suzaku’s not about to be almost, if indirectly and entirely unintentionally, responsible for Lelouch’s death because he didn’t do anything to stop him.

So, of course, the logical thing to do, is to follow Lelouch in, the door shutting very firmly behind them.

 

===

 

Suzaku practically crashes into Lelouch’s back when he gets inside the room.

“Ouch,” Lelouch yelps, stumbling forward a little.

“Sorry,” Suzaku replies sheepishly, edging away from Lelouch. It’s far enough that Suzaku won’t bump into him but not enough to lose Lelouch in the darkness. Lelouch addresses that problem quickly, though, when he waves his wand in a gesture Suzaku doesn’t recognize from their classes. The few lanterns that are hanging in the room flicker alive. They now cast a soft light in the room that makes things look fuzzy.

“What is this place?” Suzaku asks, looking around the room suspiciously as he closely follows Lelouch further in.

The air inside is dry and cold, and smells of old parchment; it’s like it hasn’t been opened for years. There are wooden desks scattered across the room and bookshelves line the walls, filled with worn, thick textbooks. It might have been a classroom but the furniture and walls look too abused for the room to have been only used for the type of lessons they have so far.

Suzaku tries to peer around towering bookshelf, half-expecting something dreadful to pop up out of the shadows.

From behind him, Lelouch lets out a noise that sort of sounds like a laugh. "You're not scared of an old classroom, are you?"

“It's fine,” Suzaku says quickly, turning back to face Lelouch. The other boy almost looks amused, and Suzaku figures he’s better off just letting Lelouch have what he wants this time. He can always ask later.

“I suppose we should start with the basics,” Lelouch begins, taking out his wand. Suzaku can tell from Lelouch’s voice that he probably likes getting to teach people stuff and show how smart he is. Suzaku wonders why he didn’t think to ask Lelouch for help in the first place.

“Lumos,” Lelouch says, his pronunciation crisp and flawless. The tip of his wand develops a steady, soft glow, like a faraway star, before he then says, “Nox”. The light disappears. He lowers his wand and looks at Suzaku expectantly.

“I know that one,” Suzaku replies. It is one of the few spells Suzaku usually gets right and without any unexpectedly violent results.

“Well, go on then,” Lelouch prompts, crossing his arms and waiting.

Having a set of eyes directly on him is a little unsettling, but Suzaku holds out his wand and murmurs, ”Lumos” quickly. The tip of his wand lights up with a glow, dim at first but then it grows brighter. It grows brighter still, and then Suzaku yelps because the wand suddenly shakes and a few sparks fly out from the lit end, high enough that they hit the ceiling. Suzaku stares up at the scorch marks above them before he looks back at his wand nervously. He sighs in relief when he sees that the glow has died down, to something more like what Lelouch had.

“See?” Suzaku insists, holding up his wand so that Lelouch can see that is perfectly lit and not doing anything else. He twirls it in his hand. “No problem?”

Lelouch only raises an eyebrow at him, looking very unimpressed.

Suzaku frowns and mutters Nox, feeling worse about this whole thing than when they’d started. “So I might have some trouble,” Suzaku admits. “It’s not that bad.”

Lelouch watches Suzaku and thinks for a while. He even brings a hand to his chin in that way Suzaku has seen Tohdoh and his father do when they’re thinking about something really serious. It’s a little weird, especially when Lelouch’s eyes travel up and down, as if to observe every inch of him. Suzaku feels the need to cross his arms to block his view and he does just that. Lelouch laughs quietly, lifting a hand to his mouth to try and muffle the sound.

“What?” Suzaku demands once it seems that Lelouch is done with his very rude study.

“You have a problem with control,” Lelouch announces, then sighs. “Which is, honestly, not that surprising.”

“Hey,” Suzaku protests with a frown.

Lelouch at least looks embarrassed, some red appearing in his cheeks. “Oh—” He clears his throat, staring resolutely at one of the desks. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Whatever it’s… okay, forget it,” Suzaku says. Lelouch eyes him hesitantly but only nods and continues where he left off.

“Well—as I said, you have some trouble with controlling your magical power. You don’t make an effort to restrain it, and you get that,” Lelouch says, pointing at the ceiling. He clears his throat and smirks, pulling his wand out again. “But you won’t after I’ve taught you. Now, let’s try that again.”

 

===

 

After two weeks of afternoon practices with Lelouch, Suzaku passes his next Charms exam. He doesn’t get a perfect score, and maybe he flubs up one of the incantations, but Suzaku is so thrilled that his mistakes don’t bother him at all.

The first thing Suzaku does upon finishing is to hurry to the Great Hall. Lelouch finished his own exam before Suzaku and, after a very insistent request from Suzaku, promised to wait for him at lunch. He even gave Suzaku a quiet “good luck” and rushed off before Suzaku could even think to thank him. Suzaku grins to himself at the thought and picks up his pace, ignoring a Prefect’s shout of “no running in the halls!”

He finds Lelouch waiting at one empty end of the Slytherin table. That alone makes Suzaku even happier than his test grade.

Suzaku makes his way over to Lelouch and finds the other boy staring at a chessboard. 

“What are you doing?” Suzaku asks instead of saying hello, sliding into the seat beside Lelouch and dropping his bag onto the table. A Gryffindor like him probably gets some odd looks from the other Slytherins a little further along the table but Suzaku doesn’t care. He’s here to see Lelouch.

Lelouch who, for his trouble, gives him a very not-happy stare. “I’m playing chess,” Lelouch replies flatly before turning back to the board.

Suzaku leans over to get a better look, examining the board with a frown, for lack of anything better to do. “Against yourself?”

“Yes,” Lelouch says, tone clipped.

There is a long silence that follows because Suzaku isn’t sure what to try next. He would really to try and continue talking, maybe push themselves a little closer to having something like a real conversation. On the other hand, bothering Lelouch when he wants to be alone probably isn’t the best thing to do.

So, Suzaku stays silent and as still as he can be. It’s actually pretty hard because now that he realizes it, he’s really hungry. Lelouch continues with his game as though there is no one else in the entire world. The time and silence stretches on and Suzaku starts to think that maybe he ought to give up for today.

Just as he does, Lelouch suddenly looks up from his game. Suzaku stiffens when his eyes lock with his own instantly. 

“How was your exam?” Lelouch asks.

Suzaku flounders a bit, trying to come up with something. “Oh—uh, it was all right.”

Lelouch frowns. “Just all right?”

“I-I mean, I did really good!” Suzaku says, unintentionally loud and leaning closer—too close. Lelouch eyes him nervously and Suzaku sits back, embarrassed. “Um. I passed and stuff,” Suzaku finally says, rubbing a hand at the back of his neck awkwardly.

Lelouch looks calmer and flashes Suzaku a quick, tiny smile of approval. “Congratulations,” Lelouch offers as he turns back to his game. It looks like that’s the end of it and they really have nothing more to say to each other but—

“Hey, um,” Suzaku says, and he nearly loses his nerve when Lelouch's gaze is on him again. “Do you want a playing partner or something?”

Suzaku doesn’t know why he’s even asking. He’s honestly terrible at stuff like this. He only ever played a few games of Shogi with Tohdoh after kendo training and lost every single one. Suzaku doesn’t really like those strategies and plans; dealing with problems as they come is a lot easier. But if Lelouch likes it, Suzaku is willing to take any opportunity he can get.

Lelouch is still staring at Suzaku. He can't decide how to react to Suzaku’s words, and his fingers are gripping the chess piece in his hand.

“You—” Lelouch stops, stares down at the chessboard as though it holds some sort of explanation, and looks back up at Suzaku. His eyes narrow in suspicion and Suzaku really wishes he would stop looking at him like that already. “Do you even know how to play?”

“No,” Suzaku admits. When Lelouch turns his attention back to his solo game, Suzaku hurries to add, “But I can learn!”

That earns him another intense Lelouch-stare but Suzaku doesn’t back down. He meets Lelouch’s eyes and stares right back. He tries not to blink and it feels like a really long time until:

“Okay.”

Suzaku pauses, unsure if he heard right. “Okay?” Suzaku echoes.

“Yes, okay.” Lelouch tilts his head towards the seat across from him. “Now sit down over there. Unless you don’t actually want to play?”

“No—I mean, yes!” Suzaku blurts, scrambling out of his spot and moving to sit across from Lelouch, gazing at the chessboard before looking up to meet Lelouch’s eyes again. “I want to play.”

Lelouch nods and Suzaku is pleased to see he’s still smiling. It’s barely there, but it means Lelouch is enjoying himself. Suzaku quietly helps him clear the board and set the chess pieces anew.

After a quick rundown of the rules, Suzaku loses his first game of chess in ten moves. He gets the feeling Lelouch might have gone easy on him. This suspicion only grows when Lelouch gives him a sad frown, as if in pity, and says, “You really _are_ quite bad.”

Suzaku shrugs. “Games like this are hard. They’re complicated.”

“Or you’re simply bad at them,” Lelouch replies. Suzaku bristles, about to snap back at him, but he stops short when he sees another hint of a smile playing at the corner of Lelouch’s mouth. Someone teasing him would have ended in a scuffle by now, but with Lelouch, each time he gets a reaction out of him that isn’t anger or suspicion makes him feel good.

“Maybe you’re not a good teacher,” Suzaku says, feeling daring, and he grins.

Lelouch crosses his arms with a huff. “I don’t see how you can tell such an obvious lie. Who was it that just passed their Charms exam with my help?”

“Yeah,” Suzaku agrees. “You’re really smart, Lelouch.” 

Seeing Lelouch blush a little at his compliment makes Suzaku feel like smiling again—so he does. “Do you want to play another game?”

He expects Lelouch to jump at the chance to beat him again, so he’s surprised when Lelouch only blinks at him oddly. “You want to play again?” Lelouch asks in disbelief.

“Yeah.” Suzaku nods, kind of confused. “Is that okay?”

“No, it’s fine, just…” Lelouch pauses, and for once, is too flustered to come up with a clever response. Afraid that he’s made him angry, Suzaku is ready to take back the idea when Lelouch suddenly sits up straighter and starts gathering up the chess pieces. 

“While it’s just as bad as your Charms work was,” Lelouch says, face still red as he returns each chess piece to its place on the board, “I don’t think it will take as long to make you a decent chess player.”

Relieved, Suzaku helps Lelouch set the board up for a second time. “Does that mean you’re better at chess than Charms?” Suzaku teases, setting the last pawn in place and grinning.

Lelouch merely rolls his eyes and gestures to the board impatiently. “Did you want to play again or not?”

“Yup,” Suzaku replies, and they start their second game. Their third and fourth games follow right after, and certainly not because Suzaku loses very quickly for each one. Losing isn’t as annoying as it usually is, when he’s playing with Lelouch and having fun enough that they completely forget about eating lunch.

It's Lelouch's turn now, and he has been quiet for a while; they're only a couple of minutes into their fifth game. The Great Hall is starting to empty out and lunch time is almost over. They spent a lot of time together today and haven't argued once. Suzaku figures that this is as good a time as any.

“Hey... Lelouch?”

Lelouch slowly nods, never looking away from the chessboard. “Hm?”

“Sorry, I…” Suzaku hesitates, swallows, and says in a single breath, “Sorry I almost killed you that day I really didn’t mean it.”

Lelouch slowly looks up at him, lost. “Pardon?”

“You know, when—when I did that, I didn’t want to hurt you like that and…”

Suzaku has to stop because Lelouch looks really uncomfortable now, like he wants to run away. Suzaku doesn’t want that to happen so he waits for Lelouch to speak first. After a moment, Lelouch sighs and stares down at the table. 

“Do we really have to talk about this?” Lelouch says, sounding tired. “It was just an accident.”

“I wanted to tell you sorry,” Suzaku replies. “I am really, _really_ sorry—”

“Yes, you’ve said that already,” Lelouch cuts in, twirling the chess piece in his hand.

“But…” Suzaku pauses, a bit panicked. “I did one of the worst things ever to you!”

“And I know that you didn’t want to,” Lelouch says. His nervous fingers drop the chess piece on the table. Lelouch presses his lips together a moment, and then continues. “I’m not upset. I was before, in the hospital wing. But think for a second—you know that you didn’t wish for that to happen, right?”

“No…”

“Then stop worrying about it. Please,” Lelouch tells him, voice tight, and it sounds like he means it. Suzaku isn’t sure if Lelouch has forgiven him—he doesn’t think he’ll ever be for the rest of his life—but at least Lelouch isn’t angry.

“Okay,” Suzaku relents. He tries to meet Lelouch’s eyes when the other boy finally looks up again, and is happy when he succeeds. “I—”

“And no more apologies.”

“Okay, okay, got it. Just wanted to say you dropped that,” Suzaku says, pointing at the forgotten pawn on the table.

“Yes, thank you,” Lelouch says, not sounding very thankful, but Suzaku grins anyway. Lelouch shakes his head with a little sigh and places the pawn on the board. “Now move, please.”

Suzaku grabs a bishop and confidently slides it halfway across the board. “Check!”

“You can’t move there, Suzaku.”


End file.
